Team Prenda Does Not Show Up In Court; Judge Is Not Amused

from the bad-day-for-prenda dept

We'll have a more complete report soon from Ken "Popehat" White, who was in the courtroom for the Prenda hearing today and will be writing about it for us (and for his own site), but for the quick version of what happened, with a huge assist from both Adam Steinbaugh and White, is that the judge has not made a ruling yet, but he is not at all pleased, saying "the client has been running everything. I know who the client is." There was no direct admission of who owns AF Holdings (other than that it had been transferred to another holding company, LiveWire -- as Pietz pointed out in his chart), but nothing else directly came out in court, apparently, other than Judge Wright's claim that he knows what's going on. In fact, he noted that the shell companies are "not even shells." This does not bode well for Prenda.

Of all the people ordered to appear, Team Prenda decided not to bother -- instead telling the judge they were available by phone, though the judge chose not to call. The only person (outside of Gibbs and Morgan Pietz) who did make it was Alan Cooper. But just one of the Alan Coopers. The caretaker one, who claims that his name was used illegally on various documents. In other words, as expected, Prenda and John Steele have still failed to produce another Alan Cooper who actually was associated with the shell companies. Apparently, Cooper showed up with voicemails left by John Steele which sound vaguely threatening, promising to tie him up in litigation -- possibly the defamation case that Steele filed against Cooper and the anonymous internet commenters. This will not help Steele's case. At all.

Apparently, Judge Otis Wright was not particularly pleased about this turn of events. Similarly, he blasted Paul Hansmeier for his deposition in which he tapdanced around pretty much every question. Remember, Hansmeier gave the deposition as the official designated "representative" of AF Holdings, one of the mysterious shell companies at issue in these cases, but Judge Wright pointed out that Hansmeiers evasiveness suggested he "doesn't know anything about his own firm." Or, you know, he's choosing not to say things.

Gibbs was put on the stand to testify, and apparently continued his "I was just taking orders" defense, in which he pointed the judge to Prenda. He also apparently claims he left Prenda because of the "online harassment and unwelcome exposure," though that wouldn't explain why he then became "in house counsel" for LiveWire, the shell holding company that was "acquiring" various Prenda shells. Judge Wright pointed out that Gibbs was the official counsel of record, and therefore the person responsible, even if he was attempting to throw Prenda under the bus. Gibbs also claimed that while he was "in house counsel" for LiveWire for two months, he never got paid (just like the Hansmeier deposition). It seems that no one associated with Prenda ever seems to want to pay anyone. Funny, that.

Also, Gibbs and his lawyers apparently tried to push back on the Verizon filing, which suggested that Gibbs failed to inform Verizon that the order allowing subpoenas to move forward in one of the cases had been killed by the court, and, furthermore, suggested Gibbs then lied to the court in claiming that Verizon had been informed. However, Verizon's lawyers showed up, and that apparently silenced Gibbs' lawyers.

Anyway, that's our quick update... There will be a ruling soon enough, but come back tonight when we post a more complete analysis from inside the courtroom.

Reader Comments

Hmm...

For some reason I can't help but imagine Judge Otis dressed up as Judge Dredd right now. Seems fitting, considering how FUBAR'd those fucking assclowns from Prenda are going to be by the end of the week...

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Um, there appears to have been a collaborative effort between a number of people to expose what was going on in the courtroom today. If you had been following the +Prenda tag on Twitter, you'd know about this.

Re: Prenda using Hollywood Accounting?

Hollywood accounting is famous for pictures grossing over 110 million and NEVER fessing up on the common clause of 'percentage of profit'. (Profits? What profits? We don't have no stinking profits!)

Hollywood accounting has got to be a stereotype phrase by now for: Don't sign that contract without a percentage of the GROSS receipts. (even if the percentage is much smaller the return is much larger.)

Re: Popcorn at the ready!

Re: Re: Popcorn at the ready!

To all the popcornerers on this sight: There is some concern about the unlimited consumption of popcorn without appropriate countermeasures, including prune juice and excercise. Therefore it is recomended that one attach one's computer's to a treadmill, which one should only pause while typing (given the frequent requests for an edit feature, apparently typing while static is even difficult at times), attending the neccessary, or actually working. The prune juice option may be mitigated with copious amounts of Milk Duds. The effect may be messy.

So the point is that while popcorn provides a bit of roughage, and certainly at times amusement while pondering expectant amusement, it is mostly air. Comments, refering strictly to popcorn, therefore are mostly air. While a bit of air will lighten many loads, and increase comment count, it often fails to actually, like, contribute, as I know the multitude of popcornerers are capable of. (Dang those preposition ending sentances that express the vernacular).

Re: Can't wait!

Of all the people ordered to appear, Team Prenda decided not to bother -- instead telling the judge they were available by phone, though the judge chose not to call. The only person (outside of Gibbs and Morgan Pietz) who did make it was Alan Cooper.

Living just a few miles from the court, I was tempted to go, but then figured only Cooper, Peitz & Gibbs would be there and Wright would just issue bench warrants all around for the rest. Fortunately the #Prenda tweet stream kept me sufficiently entertained and the little bit of live tweeting that was done helped round it out.

was an arrest warrant issued for those that didn't turn up? if not, why not? i know damn well that had it been me or any other 'ordinary person' we would have been locked up and the key thrown away! the judge has got the chance to deal with these ass hats once (hopefully) and for all. i sincerely hope he takes this chance (within the law of course, but i dont care if that's stretched a bit!) and not waste it!!

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This is a civil trial, not a criminal trial. Nobody on Prenda's team has been charged with any crimes (yet), so the consequences are different from what you or I would suffer if we skipped out on, say, a DUI trial.

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Am and am not surprised on the no-show. Kind of like pleading the 5th but with silence instead.

So far it has been only a civil action but this hearing was in relation to misconduct unbecoming of an attorney inside the courtroom and a prelude to more serious action.

The judge may have wanted to issue warrants today but he was thrown two more bones to pick with Prenda. One is the issue with Allen Mooney (of various spellings) which at least doubles the likely contempt of court (and other) charges and somewhat need to be sorted out. Second is the Verizon being taken for a ride affair of which, justifiably, they are miffed about and also needs some thought.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: WE'RE not amused, either, Mike.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: WE'RE not amused, either, Mike.

Best thing to happen to you since Swartz.

Actually, Masnick has been desperate for even one single instance of malfeasance in regard to Six Strikes, but hasn't hit his piracy-apologist lotto yet. He'll keep at it tho. He literally can't wait to say that one mistake means enforcement should be done away with. That's why he supports rape laws being wiped from the books; because, y'know, enforcement doesn't work and the "collateral damage" from a false accusation is just too much. Because he's consistent across the board with his opinions on law.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: WE'RE not amused, either, Mike.

As someone who knows four women who confessed to being raped ...I'm actually amazed at this but...you should be raped. You should experience it, and then come back and say to someone's face that he said "Do away with rape laws".
No. Shut up. You're wrong. You're sick.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: WE'RE not amused, either, Mike.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: WE'RE not amused, either, Mike.

You're just mad that this is the best your copyright buddies can come up with. How's it feel to finally have the book thrown at you? Have fun campaigning for their amnesty, just like Evan Stone and Andrew Crossley. Glorious heroes and enforcers of copyright, all of them.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: WE'RE not amused, either, Mike.

You're just mad that this is the best your copyright buddies can come up with.

LOL! I haven't really followed this story, and these guys certainly aren't my buddies. I think all scumbag lawbreakers should pay. That includes these guys, if they're guilty, and all of the piratical douches that flock to Chicken Mike. My opinion doesn't change because of which side of the debate they're on. Watching you basement dwellers drool at the site of a dishonest "porn troll" is very entertaining. If only you idiots cared about other lawbreakers with the same vigor. But, alas, when it's one of "your kind," you all become myopic.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: WE'RE not amused, either, Mike.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: WE'RE not amused, either, Mike.

So let's see here.

We've got a very interesting story happening in the courts. One that most Techdirtians are interested in. As a business owner and blog writer...wouldn't it be in everyone's best interests for Mike et al to keep writing about it? He gets the traffic, we get the stories. He is thus doing what any other blogger would do.

Re: Re: Re: Re: WE'RE not amused, either, Mike.

your prognostication and math skills are just about as bad as your business skills in the music biz

According to his math and accounting skills he wasted 6 Petabytes of data and caused the collapse of the entirety of North American network by merely loading this post. Hollywood accounting can be scary. o.O

Re: Re: WE'RE not amused, either, Mike.

Which amusingly explains the likes of outo_of_the_bob. He claims it's a waste of bandwidth but he keeps reading EVERY-SINGLE-ARTICLE. I take it trolls are masochists judging from Prenda and our usual trolls.

Re: WE'RE not amused, either, Mike.

One can only hope

One can only hope that the judge issues bench warrants for the arrest of these asshats and throws their sorry butts into a deep, dark hole! This isn't just (IMO) a matter of contempt of court - it is more a matter of felony obstruction of justice!

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I am soooooo surprised that they did not show up in court today. /deadpan

When they didn't get called, I wonder if they popped open some champagne to celebrate. Or were they following the twitter feed as they quickly crammed some clean underwear into their go bag to make a run for it...

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Yeah, totally not surprised in the least they pulled a no-show here, and I have to wonder if they went with the 'you can contact us via phone' routine because they are scrambling like mad to get out of the country before the bench warrants are written up, which would make showing up physically rather difficult.

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I think it's more likely that they knew they were going to get reamed, and none of them could bear to face it in person. That's what I was thinking about when I woke up this morning; I wouldn't be able to force myself to show up, if I was on Team Prenda.

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As has been pointed out this is a civil case and not a criminal case although i would be surprised if there were not some charges laid against the two or three main culprits in this.
I hope the judge calls for criminal charges and pushes this up to a higher court.

If anything there seems to be a lot of he said she said and a lot of trying to hide any income with everyone saying they have not been paid anything so far.
One interesting thing would be how many people paid up from those that were accused and sent demanding letters after the court said they must not, also how much has Prenda or any organization that Steel and Hammershite(sp) have been involved with taken from settlements. Where has Steel been making money as he was barred from practicing law previously from what i can remember.

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He was barred from attempting to practice law in FL. Which made him filing his defamation suit there hysterical as he promised the FL bar he wouldn't even think of player lawyer there.

Is that practicing law (he was his own client, I take it) or just availing himself of using the law to defend himself? Even douchebag lawyers have the right to defend themselves.

BTW, I'm not defending them, exactly. I think this whole charde is just stunningly ridiculous. These bums made it through law school and were accredited by the Bar?!? What's wrong with law schools and the Bar that allows this crap to happen? No accountability on their part, whatsoever? This seems to happen over and over again.

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I'm just wondering...isn't all this enough to actually get all these people at Prenda Law kicked out of the California Bar Association? I mean seriously, why haven't these clowns lost their licenses to practice law?!

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Disbarment isn't a fast process. In many states (including California IIRC), it permanently removes your ability to work and earn money in your chosen field, with no ability to be reinstated after you've rehabbed yourself. It takes all of those years of schooling and work and flushes them away, leaving you to try and find some other way to pay your bills.

It has to be a deliberate process, to make sure that only lawyers who truly deserve to be disbarred are disbarred. They have to rule out the possibility that a long suspension or other disciplinary actions are inadequate.

THREE HOURS SINCE PROMISED UPDATE!

Fanboys are holding their breath, Mike! Needz more NON-NEWS!

Take a loopy tour of Techdirt.com! You always end up at same place!http://techdirt.com/
Why aren't you fanboys helping out Mike with links back to here as I do? What a bunch of innovation-less freeloaders!

Re: THREE HOURS SINCE PROMISED UPDATE!

Re: THREE HOURS SINCE PROMISED UPDATE!

You know, as entertaining as it has been, and continues to be to watch all the scum at Prenda dance and squirm to avoid having to answer for their actions, almost as entertaining has been the actions of you and a few others, desperately, futility trying to act like nothing at all is happening, all the while trying to convince others of that 'fact'.

Well, sorry to say Mr. Wizard, but the curtain has been pulled back, and everyone is getting a good look at the people, and actions behind it, no matter how much you might wish otherwise.

Re: THREE HOURS SINCE PROMISED UPDATE!

So for someone who's repeatedly said that this story is boring and a waste of bandwidth...you sure are on tenter-hooks waiting for the latest news, aren't you?

This is why no-body believes or even likes you. You constantly scream bloody murder at Mike and Techdirt, (often quite literally) but in reality, you keep coming back, you keep reading, because, deep down, you're one of us. You're a copyright hating person too...
Actually scratch that. I sincerely hope not, because if you are one of us, you are capable of singlehandedly causing copyright abolition to fail simply through sheer incompetence and stupidity.